The Nines
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 39 minutes
Directed by: John August
Starring:
Ryan Reynolds - Gary / Gavid / Gabriel
Melissa McCarthy - Margaret / Herself / Mary
Hope Davis - Sarah / Susan / Sierra
Elle Fanning - Noelle
David Denman - Parole Officer / Agitated Man
John August is one of the great working screenwriters in my book. It's not only that he made both Charlie's Angels flicks more fun than they had any right to be or that he penned one of my favorite films of all-time, Big Fish, but that he's really taken advantage of the Internet to provide valuable tutelage and council to hundreds of thousands of aspiring screenwriters. The Nines marks his directorial debut and a product where as both the writer and the director, we can see August completely unrestrained as he attempts to weave an original story that will undoubtedly baffle almost all who see it.
Through three stories of questionable reality, Ryan Reynolds, Melissa McCarthy, and Hope Davis each exist as a different character in each reality and trying to understand how these characters relate to one another across narratives, The Nines is a collision of August's views regarding celebrity, reality television, avatars, but overall, the concept of "The Author". A writer/director is the closest realization of the "auteur theory" and August seems interested in exploring the theory not in a self-referential way (or at least, not to the point of distraction), but in a modern setting where we all write our own stories and constantly question where we exists in relation to those stories.
As a theoretical exercise, The Nines works well. I have to applaud Ryan Reynolds who could easily just coast on mainstream fare but constantly challenges himself and it's invigorating to watch him confidently charge through August's baffling worlds. McCarthy and Davis are also perfectly cast and the casting is monumentally important when we're grasping for any sort of foothold in such a confusing matrix of ideas and narratives.
The question is whether or not you're willing to engage August in his conversation about these ideas. While he's clearly given his ideas some thought, he's the professor trying to have a Socratic dialogue with his students and I can only hope that one day he has that dialogue on his website or in interviews. The Nines never saw a wide release and it's a film the mainstream would never embrace but I feel that it has a cult following in its future. It certainly provides an interesting marker in the career of a screenwriter's screenwriter.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
2.18.08